The trip through hyperspace was uneventful, with Enuma's chatter becoming less and less irritating with every conversation. Somina, if anything, was growing fond of the young Twi'lek, seeing in the violet eyes of the girl something she'd once seen in the eyes of another. Enuma's life had been hard since birth, just as Somina's had been; that is, until Plo Koon took her away from that life. Perhaps that was one of the reasons Somina felt such a connection to the Twi'lek, and also why she felt such responsibility for Enuma's safety. The Jedi were clearly not capable of taking care of their own, and Somina vowed to do better by Enuma than had been done for her.
Somina looked at the younger Twi'lek, and saw the sparkle of true happiness in Enuma's eyes. She felt a little joy herself, and yet still had reservations. After all, she was in the service of the Dark Lord of the Sith, and that, from what she'd encountered as a Jedi, had an inherent risk to it. Somina didn't want to subject Enuma to more trauma than she'd already been through, but Somina knew that there would be conflict to come. For now, however, Somina felt it was best to keep Enuma close. It would be far easier to protect Enuma if she knew where Enuma was.
The small ship lurched out of hyperspace near to the massive city-world of Coruscant. Even from far above, the lights of billions upon billions of buildings sparkled like diamond dust scattered on the dark velvet of night that stretched over this side of the planet. Somina could also see that several Star Destroyers, an improved version of the cruisers the Republic had used, were positioned around the Imperial capital in a defensive pattern. She knew that they likely were already detected, and she held her breath for a moment, awaiting the inevitable signal.
"Unidentified craft, what is your identification sequence?" A harsh voice spoke over the comlink. Somina hurried, flipping through the information Vader had given her for just this situation. She finally found the codes, and hit the transmit key.
"This is courier vessel Deepstar-Zero. Our Imperial ident code is 7743-AD26. I am in route to deliver a payload for Admiral Tarkin's staff." Somina continued to wait, anxiously, as silence came over the channel. Seconds dragged on, feeling like minutes as Somina continued to hold position, awaiting the response from the closest Star Destroyer, and hoping that the response was not a volley from the ship's turbolasers.
The comlink crackled back to life, after what felt like forever to Somina. "Deepstar-Zero, you have been cleared for descent to landing platform AL-19. You will be met by an Imperial adjutant; have your credentials prepared for review."
Somina, wisely sticking to Vader's orders, followed the instructions she was given to the letter. After landing on the pad they were directed to, Somina disembarked the ship, having Enuma wait on board until after her dealings with whatever Imperial functionary came to meet them. Sure enough, a low-ranking officer walked up to the pad, and curtly nodded to Somina. "Lieutenant Commander Sulaiman, Imperial Planetary Security."
Somina nodded in return, maintaining a stone-faced facade, betraying no emotion. Inside, Somina was terrified, but in no way was she going to let this Sulaiman know that. She spoke in measured, calm tones. "Commander. I was told there wasn't going to be any problems with my approach. Admiral Tarkin is not terribly..."
"Admiral Tarkin is no longer an admiral, Ma'am. He was promoted by the Emperor himself to the position of Grand Moff. You'd be wise to remember that if you're going to be running errands for Lord Vader." Sulaiman flashed Somina a wicked grin, a grin that in that second, told Somina that Sulaiman was another of Vader's assets. She wasn't relieved, not at all, but at least she knew that Sulaiman wouldn't betray her unless told to by the one who held his leash.
Sulaiman, after Somina had covered a few minor introductions, gestured for Somina and Enuma to follow him, and they walked from the landing pad into a smaller structure that sat adjacent to the pad. Once the door was shut, Sulaiman became much less ramrod-straight and far more relaxed. "They expect certain things from Imperial officers, even if we're low men in the hierarchy. Now, Ms...Kiin, I believe...yes, Taryn Kiin...I'm to get you equipped and sent off to wherever Lord Vader is sending you. He...umm...didn't inform me you'd have a companion. It's not so much of an issue for me, of course, as she'll be with you and not me, but in the future, you might want to clear such things with him before you arrive here. It makes things run smoother, you see."
Somina looked at the officer with skepticism. "You work for Vader?"
Sulaiman laughed, a hearty laugh. "Of course I do. There's not a lot of options in the Empire for people who are..." Sulaiman pointed to his head with his right hand, as if to imply something. "You know, 'sensitive'?" Somina, her face registering understanding, nodded, and he continued. "You have three options, ultimately. If you have military and physical training, you can take your chances at joining the Royal Guard, and probably die. You can hide it from everyone, eventually be ratted out, and then definitely die. Or, as in my case, you can get on Darth Vader's good side, and be placed in the hierarchy just where he needs you. You do the job you're assigned and never let slip that you're anything but a good Imperial officer, but from time to time, Lord Vader gives you little assignments that you do without question, secretly. These things can't be found out, because if you're discovered, Lord Vader has a nasty habit of killing you from somewhere else."
Somina, increasingly skeptical, folded her arms and seemed unimpressed. "So why are you telling me this?"
Sulaiman, his wicked grin growing wider, spoke softly. "Because I know if you try and mess things up for me, all I have to do is cry 'Jedi' and you, Miss Tano, are history. You think I don't recognize you? Your face was all over Coruscant not all that long ago, and I don't care if you're older. So, you see, we have a nice, stable, balanced arrangement here. I keep my mouth shut about you and your pet Twi'lek here, and you keep yours shut about me being anything but a low-level adjutant. Understood?"
Somina smiled, her grin nearly as wicked as his. "Perfectly."
Sulaiman, satisfied, turned and rummaged through some stacks of paperwork on his desk. "Now, since you're going into a very restricted and heavily patrolled zone, there's a couple things you need to know about. First, the Jedi temple itself has been sealed up since the founding of the Empire, so we don't know what might actually be in there. We suspect there's likely vagrants and other assorted lowlifes, but there's no way to know for sure; the temple is built with some sort of material that interferes with our sensors and no scans can get through. Be prepared for just about anything. Now, getting there, that's the challenge. There are gun batteries all around the damn thing that will blow anything that flies near to the structure into so many hot atoms, so you're going to have to go in on foot. Those same gun batteries won't hesitate to fire on someone walking around on foot there either, so stay out of sight and don't draw any damn attention. Once you're in, they won't be able to detect you, so from there, you've pretty much got the run of the place, assuming gundarks haven't moved in."
Somina shot him a rather nasty glare. "There are gundarks on Coruscant?"
Sulaiman remained nonplussed. "There's a lot of things people don't know about on Coruscant. Like ex-Jedi. Just watch yourself, alright? I've no desire to explain to Lord Vader why another one of his servants got made really, really dead."
Somina, perfectly content to end the conversation, turned and left, Enuma in tow. "Looks like we're going to have a bit of a walk, Enuma. You up for this?"
Enuma smiled, almost brightening the Coruscant night. "I am always ready to adventure with my friend Ahsoka."
Somina almost winced at the sound of that name. Not only was it not wise to speak the name of any Jedi, even one who walked away, here in the seat of Imperial power, but it just didn't sound right any more. Perhaps that was part of why Vader was so different from Anakin, she reasoned. "Enuma, it might not be a bad idea to not...use that name while we're here. It might lead to trouble we don't want. Just call me 'Somina', alright?"
Enuma, her painted-on eyebrow raised, seemed puzzled, but she nodded in assent nonetheless. "Somina. Alright, Somina. That's a pretty name too. Sommmmmmmmina." Enuma smiled again, and Somina felt a little more at ease. "We will have more adventures, Somina?"
Somina grinned and nodded to the Twi'lek. "We will, Enuma. Starting right away."
